End of an Era for Acorn Books

On March 10^th the doors will close forever in one of central Ohio’s best known used bookstores, though not the biggest, it’s one of the coziest (book lovers are a polite bunch and don’t mind moving out of the way for other bibliophiles).

According to the company website, “It has been a wonderful, wild run through these challenging years, competing first with the big chain bookstores such as Borders and Barnes & Noble, followed closely by the advent of Amazon, and the selling of books online.  We were able to make it for a quarter of a century, and we’re very proud of that.”

I only heard the news when Bauman was being interviewed by WCBE (NPR) recently. As I walked into the room my husband blurted out that Acorn Books was closing, so I stayed and listened to the rest of the interview. Hence, my reason for visiting to pay my respects and hopefully pick up some bargains in the meantime.

When I stopped in today (2/23), two weeks prior to the closing, the store was absolutely swarming with customers all wishing Christine and George (see below) well before getting lost among the

stacks searching for one (or an armful in my case) more treasure to add to their personal collection. I heard a customer say that he felt like a ‘book vulture.’ I heard George comment something to the effect that ‘we’re all book vultures; they’re the best kind.’ That certainly made me feel less guilty as I staggered over to the cash register trying to balance my finds.

When George saw that all my books were from the Books About Books section, he told me that was his favorite section. He also asked if I had ever read Biblioholism by Tom Raabe, which is one of the books I had in my stack to purchase. “Hello, I’m George, and I’m a Biblioholic.” I answered back, “Hi, I’m Cindy, and I’m also a Biblioholic.” It was fun listening to him reminisce with his wife Christine when he commented on some of the books while she totaled them up.

He told me he purchased Shakespeare & Company by Sylvia Beach while they were visiting Paris. I mentioned having been there myself briefly many years (13 to be exact) ago, though I’m not sure we actually bought anything, and unlike some, haven’t ever stayed there.

I kind of feel bad that I was only an occasional customer with my last visit over a year ago; prior to that, perhaps less than half a dozen times. This was partly because it’s a little further to get to Grandview, and a lot more convenient to either pop into a branch of Half Price Books or open up my laptop and let my fingers do the walking. As much as I love used bookstores for the atmosphere and being among my ‘tribe’ of bibliophiles, used bookstores are always going to have to struggle to compete with chains like HPB and Amazon.com. I guess we all want our cake and to eat it too.

I wish the Baumans a happy retirement from the book business, and know that you and your bookstore will be missed by the Columbus book loving community.